I've called this one FFE, or Fire For Effect in it's long form. As with any line like this, you have to take time to explore every possible sequence & arrive at the most logical, or direct path, narrowing the margin of error. Then you have to have the intelligence & strength to complete it. This one took some doing & every time a sharp toe edge gave way I was sent groundward without ceremony. Every time a crimp edge failed, the story repeated itself, & probability lessened. It's a thesis of dedication, of going to the rock all fired up & finding you ridiculously can't get off the ground. You go back a day or two later & you can do 3 moves, then 5, until you can climb it all in one push. It's about sticking at it, letting holds settle, overriding, understanding your own shortfalls & getting back on. There's no doubt in my mind about the grade, but it'll come down to consensus as it always does, if anyone repeats it. There will be no doubt in the minds of others who have spotted me on it, or puzzled at the tenuous holds & the prospect of such gymnastics & indeed, witnessed them. Finn tried to static a few of the holds on Fire For Effect & couldn't duplicate any partial sequence, which is suprising for a fella who holds the hardest repeat award of one of my Coire Lagan lines at V12. I wonder if the full moons effect helped me? My weight would have been 0.000035% less on the crux...resonant length = v(gd/2f) afterall aye.
At the sprightly age of 41, doing rakes of one-finger one-armers, 500 push-ups, running 12 miles on an evening & sleeping at the foot of my climbing wall to be ready at 5am, has less of a calling. Lines of that magnitude -the unclimbed left to centre right link-, are gradually slipping beyond my sight, & motivation. Keeping on form within the cutting edge of what I can achieve practically, feels a little harder also. On a logarithmic scale, the space between achievable V13 & upward into V14, or V15, is more than a short hop across a stream. It's a void, & an often misunderstood concept by the mainstream climber. Going back in time to when I did things like the first ascent of Little Women -V14 my way- in the Lakes raiding era, the pain faded in minutes. Lines beyond that magnitude these days...they have started to make my bones creak.
The last crux moves out of the cave & the project gives in after a solid day of disappointment, fighting & eventual hard earned success.
More soon anyway. Photos with commentary, will be on the Hebridean Stone Works soon. 4th hardest boulder problem on Lewis & Harris? It has to be up there. Dave MacLeod needs to get on all my hard stuff & repeat it before the Norwegians arrive...He's probably strong enough for Trace Element now aye, or a Coire V12, to coin his own words missing out the not. Gabbro is a rock type at which you have to kneel, & become a student of, before good things happen, as is frictionless Gneiss.
Another view toward a desperate last crux, with the monster sloper finish above
Time to go & jump through some big Atlantic rollers in the wet suit & relax...swim wi the collie a bit.
At 5/03/2007 7:44 PM, 
Helenâ
At 5/05/2007 2:42 PM, Mike Reesâ
Hi Si,
Firstly I must say I often read your blog and have been a follower for some time. You once dragged me into Little Font as you called it then, away from Badger Rock when I was bouldering there and showed me a problem you were working. I don't recall the name but it was hard. Do you remember? You ate my sandwiches! Anyway I just dropped in to say thanks for clearing up the fa of your problem (re email) "Little Women" which was recently reported in Climber as a Gaskins line. You may not have been aware? As the population and history understands it, myself included, he climbed the second ascent and you did the first ascent some years before. A bad error by Climber magazine in their reporting. This was the hardest boulder problem in the South Lakes for more than 6 years if my calender is right.
I looked at it recently and I still do not understand how it's possible! No disrespect intended, I will simply never climb that hard. You'll be pleased to hear that myself and my wife climb in Little Font more than at Badger Rock these days. I added a new Font7b last year :)
Really enjoyed looking through your new website as well. Stunning black and white photography that makes me want to move North! Keep up the good work, keep climbing and well done on your new boulder problem.
Best Regards,
Mike
lol the mention of "little women" makes me smile. I remember what seemed weeks journeying up to those boulders of dappled sunlight, and grunts from the back of that cave where you were determined to prove your intuition that it "was" possible, and then one late afternoon a huge chalky grin emerged having completed it :) with a comment from you of "well it's harder than 8a..." little women... now then how many people know why you named it that?